Man admits to robbery and assault

Thursday

Nov 8, 2007 at 12:01 AM

By Jeff Tucker

A Robstown man has been arrested in connection with the brutal assault and robbery of a Robstown shopkeeper in late September and police said the man arrested is also a suspect in another recent robbery and assault in the city.

Police said information from Corpus Christi Crimestoppers led to the arrest of Flores. He was charged with aggravated robbery and police said more charges are possible in the case.

Shop owner Joyce Milstead, 72, suffered a broken nose, broken cheekbone, several lacerations to her face and bruising to the back of her head while being beaten with a coffee cup and metal receipt book after Flores ambushed Milstead during the afternoon robbery, police said.

Police said the attack occurred after Flores had an extensive conservation with Milstead and that Flores robbed about $50 from the antique store, which has since been closed.

Det. Sgt. Enrique Paredez Jr. said the investigation resulted in two eyewitnesses placing Flores at the scene of the robbery, around the time it occurred.

One witness saw Flores in the vicinity of the Trash & Treasure store while another witness saw him in the store seconds before the attack occurred, Paredez said.

Flores was interviewed by police at the Nueces County Jail and confessed to the Trash & Treasure robbery, while denying any involvement in the Sept. 26 robbery of the Town & Country robbery, Paredez said.

Flores offered no explanation for the brutality of the attack on Milstead, Paredez said.

Flores had been in the Nueces County Jail on a charge of theft between $50 and $500 and a motion to revoke probation after a Sept. 24 theft.

He was additionally charged with the Trash & Treasure robbery and is being held at the jail without bond since there is a motion to revoke his probation.

Flores has prior local theft and assault convictions, but no robbery convictions.

Police said they are looking into the possibility that Flores acted with an accomplice in the Trash & Treasure robbery.

"We just want to make sure that he's the only one," Paredez said. "That's why the investigation is still ongoing. There might be somebody else involved, there might not. We are looking into the possibility that one other person was involved."

Flores is also a suspect in the Sept. 26 robbery of the Town & Country Community Store at 600 N. Fifth St., police said.

"He is a possible suspect, yes," Paredez said.

Shopkeeper Sandra Gonzalez, 45, was assaulted during that robbery and left completely blind after the attack, which also occurred at about 2:30 p.m.

Gonzalez, who was already partially blind in one eye with a prosthetic eye, suffered a torn cornea in her other eye and other facial injuries.

Her store was robbed of about $30.

The investigation of the Town & Country robbery was still ongoing as of Monday, Paredez said.